Varga Máté: Középkori és kora újkori aranypénzek. A Kaposvári Rippl-Rónai Múzeum éremgyűjteménye 1. (Kaposvár, 2015)
The Numismatic Collection of the Rippl-Rónai Museum
THE NUMISMATIC COLLECTION OE THE RIPPL-RÓNAI MUSEUM The collection of the coins in Somogy County can be traced back to the middle of the 19th century, when the antiquities - including the coins of course - were first searched and preserved in the main gymnasiums in Csurgó and Kaposvár. Not much later the Archeological and Historical Company of Somogy County had been formed and then after its winding up The Museum Association of Somogy County in 1909, the collection of which contained many coins and took over the collection of the earlier company. The objects received a comprising total of 1800 pieces including the János Somssich’s thaler collection. The latter association can be considered as the predecessor of the Rippl-Rónai Museum. In 1909 five departments were formed: numismatic, bibliographic, ethnographic and folk art, natural history, archaeological and historical. The number of the objects of the association was enriched by The Museum Association of Miskolc sending 104 pieces of coins from the age of the Árpáds and mixed kings. During the world wars the collection had life of vicissitudes; so many things were taken away. At the beginning of the 1930s there were more than twelve thousand museum pieces, but at that time the numismatic material was not taken into the inventory. The accumulated material was systemized from 1926 - during Ferenc Gönczi’s directorship after that the objects were given inventory numbers, and a drawing was made about each of the pieces. The drawings of the objects were finished in 1932. In the end after going through a series of troubles the museum and the collection could take their final places, where the exhibitions can be visited today. The museum was declared to be a public collection in 1936. After several changes of the name the museum received its present name in 1951, when Aurél Bemáth opened the first permanent exhibition which met the expectations of its age based on scientific accomplishments. Since then the collection has been multiplied. The numismatic collection has been increased with coins collected in excavations, pieces given as a gift or by way of barter. The coin hoards and stray coins have been found since the end of the 19th century and have got into the Hungarian National Museum. In a lucky way from the beginning of the 1960s numerous coin hoards (Siójut, Balatonszabadi, Buzsák, Gölle, Szenna etc.) had got into the collection of the museum, but unfortunately, the last coin hoard came into the museum in 1993 (Csököly). Since then the museum has become rich only with stray coins or specimens of excavations and less and less coins have been received as gifts. 21
